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'Deus Ex' Producer Teases Big Movie Announcement 'Soon'

Fans of Deus Ex were in for a treat this week when publisher Square Enix came to E3 2015, the annual game industry tradeshow in Los Angeles, prepared to showcase the latest entry in the cyberpunk-inspired video game series, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game is a sequel to 2011's game of the year contender Deus Ex: Human Revolution - a prequel that helped bring back the beloved Deus Ex franchise in a big way.

This interactive and styish action-heavy story earned not only a followup, but launched development on a feature film adaptation as well the following year as well. The Deus Ex movie quickly found a director and writer and would be based on the Human Revolution storyline, but outside of a change in direction for the project and a new creative team, we've not heard anything on Deus Ex in a long time. That is, until we talked to producer Adrian Askarieh who had some exciting Deus Ex news to tease.

When CBS Films first started developing on Deus Ex in 2012, they had attached the director-writer pair behind Sinister, Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, respectively to develop what they described as a realistic cyberpunk movie. Derrickson dropped out to helm Doctor Strange for Marvel Studios and a new writer, Michael Finch (Predators), was attached last summer. Since then, as we've discovered from Askarieh, the project has moved away from CBS films but there should be a "big" announcement soon.

"Roy Lee and I have parted ways with CBS Films and will shortly announce a new home for it. By the way, we love CBS Films. They were very good to us and they were very good to the project. But the budget of the movie is not something that fits the current CBS Films’ model. They may still be a part of it in terms of co-financing scenario. We are working extremely closely with Square Enix and Eidos Montreal on this one. Deus Ex is one of the most exciting projects which Roy and myself are working on. Fans should expect a very big announcement soon."

How soon?

"I can’t give you the time frame on that, but I would certainly hope that it would come this Summer."

Askarieh, who also has Hitman: Agent 47 opening in theaters in August - another Square Enix game adaptation - and just had Jonny Quest greenlit with director Robert Rodriguez attached, explained to us that the Deus Ex movie will follow the "general storyline" of the Deus Ex: Human Revolution game and star the game's protagonist, Adam Jensen. As for the upcoming Mankind Divided video game, if the first film does well, its sequel would be based on it.

And yes, the film will include the cool, weaponized augmentations that give Jensen his variety of offensive and stealth abilities.

"Absolutley, but in a way that Christopher Nolan brought everything that was iconic about Batman to Batman Begins, including all of his gear and the Batmobile. We’re very excited about Adam’s and other characters’ augmentations and the technology that’s been implanted in Adam. I think that’s something that it’s going to be a lot of fun working with a director and the costume designer and the VFX people to try to bring to cinematic life."

Is the time right for a Deus Ex adaptation? Who would you pick to play Adam Jensen and who should direct? Share your thoughts in the comments!